Shutdown fails when hwclock cannot be set

Kubuntu 12.04.1

I have an older laptop with, I suspect, a failed or failing battery. When I shutdown or reboot the computer it hangs at the hwclock command in /etc/init/hwclock-save.conf. Apparently there is no timeout applied to this command. The system repeatedly keeps trying and failing to save the system time to the hardware clock so the shutdown process never completes.

I have solved the problem for myself by commenting out the appropriate command in /etc/init/hwclock-save.conf. I diagnosed the problem by switching to another tty and observing the shutdown sequence hang at the hwclock command. However a less experienced user would wonder why the shutdown splash screen continues to be displayed, but the computer never halts.

There should be some method for checking whether the command can be executed, or at least a time out applied so that it doesn't keep checking forever.